The role of god is a maddening twenty four hour experience complete with overtime and few rewards. A job where there is no clocking out, no in house psychiatric care and no chance of early retirement. When the thing in the big chair loses the plot, whose job is it to save the world?

Crimson robe wrapped under his arm,
soles of his feet aching, the child fled the elemental assault whilst all
around him, networks of inflamed power thundered out of black clouds,
incinerating the grassy basin he raced along. The boy fixated upon the
ocean ahead, dark waves glinting in the azure moonlight. Such vast water
promised deliverance. Survival.

A rock unseen led to a trip, a stumble and
then, a bad rolling fall into the ravine of darkness. He coughed as he
drew upon a lungful of smoke rising from large embers raging everywhere, blazes
where the High-Father’s lightening rod missed their mark. The infant
target heaved himself up, gathering his red cape back under his arm, pounding
forward – away – as yet more bright flashes reached out. The silver
violence daggered out of the firmament, sizzling earth, trees and rock as the
boy-child yelped with every crack of heavenly wrath. His was the life of
a mouse dependent upon the arrogant whim of a large unremitting paw.

Leave me alone High-Father, please? His feet hit the sandy beach whilst his head ducked to the snap of
sky-fire, untamed paths of jagged fury, raising fountains of grain into
his face. Sand lodged in his right eye, but the sting of it would have to
be wiped later. I’m almost safe.

Into the gloomy waves he jumped,
hurdling black water, crimson cape flapping out behind him as he swam out,
diving deep, ploughing depths, scattering marine-life. The cat
would have to work hard for its meal, thought the caped-child, determinedly
kicking his little boy legs, thrusting him down, down, down, as fast as
possible, as swiftly as his kind could. Blind, scared, desperate, he
unhooked the gold band around his neck to let loose the long red flow of
royalty. The mark of kingship would only slow his descent. All that
life-endangering drag, dispensed of, yet still, lightening blasts boiled the
surface of his oceanic refuge. At the bottom, crouched in a ball, the
child concentrated on holding his breath as the accidental swallowing of ocean
swilled unbearably in his mouth. He fought against the undesirable image
of sucking upon the heads of dead fish. Then, after tense undisturbed moments
of waiting, he felt the bed of the great ocean vibrate. He felt the world
shudder.

Boom, boom, boom, rumbled the ocean-bed. Boom, boom, boom!

The immense weight of one thousand men
shook the waters, until the groundswell built to a trembling so vehement, that
the child-god fought to remain on the ocean floor, fists coiled tight around
plants, unable to see a thing. He couldn’t pretend not to know what
caused the quaking. He knew who these footsteps belonged to and whose
face they heralded:

High-Father, you’ve taken the form of a giant.

He clenched his teeth, resisting the
impulse to shoot up to the surface. But he was only a Halfling, his
attachment to breathing a weak point he hadn’t considered at all, not before
his submergence. Bubbles escaped him, more horrible briny taste seeping
in, till he snapped, like a wild animal, clawing, heaving, shoving baleful upon
baleful of water, climbing up decisively toward the gulps of air above.
He volleyed into the dark of a room: the suite of a modest hotel,
perhaps? Momentarily he became thankful for escaping the
High-Father; the gauntlet across Mirror Mountain Valley merely a nightmare of
his subconscious. He found himself fully grown again – a man – not
some boy on the run from some fanatical indomitable sovereign. But
this is not a hotel. The man’s eyes reacquainted themselves with the
heavy door, a green foreboding slab that locked him away from society.
The bulk of his name and history crushed all confusion out of mind.

My name is Spiderfingers and this is a
room for mad people.

Click on the chapter titles(NOT the pictures) to lose yourself in a beguiling realm, a reality that sits close, very close to the world you think you know...

2The VoiceWhen Spiderfingers' plan to evade his past comes under threat, new measures must be taken.A better part must be played.

3MineSpiderfingers finds life on the outside world full of violent unpredictable surprises.

4There Is No Off The RadarSpiderfingers returns to Bellevue, but not as a patient. Hoping to receive information to help him save the world, Spiderfingers pays a visit to an old mentor. Not everything goes according to plan.

V O L U M E IIRevelations For SomeBloody history and petty feuds crash upon the withered flaking island that is a demigod's consciousness.The theatre of his life welcomes new players as old ones face impossible odds and death-traps galore.Know yourself.

1Stage FrightRooenn becomes a marketeer of terror whilst his master seeks to savethe world through nudity.

2S is For...Spiderfingers sets up a date with Steph.She tells a story that brings a smile to the face of chaos.

A trans-racialsuper-heroine with a way with birds,A boy zombie with a pet hand and a penchant for knife-playAnd a mother who can affect the health of people from a distance, Come, meet The Discordians.

Steph is confronted by Brother Blue and his younger sibling. The way out is not through a door.

-------------------------------------

S P I D E R F I N G E R S

The Russian Doll Stories

ByJohnClay

V O L U M E IIIChaos For All When Stephanie Tent chances upon the outlandish tales of a down and out storyteller, chaos consumes her life and thrusts her onto a dark path of self-discovery and mayhem. Who do you know?How do they see you?1Prologue

7Room Full of WishesSteph learns more about her surreal environment. Above her, something burns.The Blue Man is quite penitent.8Assemble Your ForcesSteph solves the Algebra Murders with the help of a strange new accomplice.

The following compendium takes place in a universe separate from The Russian Doll Stories and ought to be read as such. Therefore, and in accordance with the will of the author, any events that ignore, nullify or contradict the happenings in The Russian Doll Stories are to be treated as non-canonical ‘Elseworld’ fantasies.

S P I D E R F I N G E R S

The Russian Doll Stories

ByJohnClay

S E C R E T B A B U S H K A S

A compendium of deleted and extended scenes to accompany The Russian Doll Stories

The following compendium takes place in a universe separate from The Russian Doll Stories and ought to be read as such. Therefore, and in accordance with the will of the author, any events that ignore, nullify or contradict the happenings in The Russian Doll Stories are to be treated as non-canonical ‘Elseworld’ fantasies.